1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method, system and apparatus for identifying pharmaceutical products.
2. The Prior Art
There are numerous instances where the identification of a certain pharmaceutical is required. On the dispensing side physicians, hospitals, retirement homes and drug stores need a day to day reference guide. In the field, there is a need for law enforcement, EMTs and others to be able to identify a pill in connection with an investigation or a sick individual.
The Physician's Desk Reference (PDR) is a book which contains photos and corresponding descriptions of available pharmaceuticals. The book format is limited because each year physicians must obtain a new copy in order to have an up to date listing. Typically, the PDR is not available in the field when law enforcement or EMTs locate pills at a scene.
To address the problem of field identification of pharmaceuticals, several systems have been proposed that incorporate a database of known pharmaceuticals. The database is typically an electronic version of the PDR, in that is contains photos and corresponding descriptions of pharmaceuticals in a searchable format. One example is the Pill Identification Wizard at www.drugs.com.
The Pill Book is a printed consumer guide to pharmaceuticals containing photos and corresponding descriptions. Certain mobile apps have been developed to search through an electronic version of The Pill Book or other databases. An “app” is an abbreviation for a computer application, frequently referring to applications which can be deployed on mobile devices. One such app is called The Pill Phone, which is described at www.pillphone.com. The Pill Phone app includes a pill lookup feature, where three or more letters are used to perform an alphabetic search for matching pill imprints. Another app called myCommunity Pillbox lets users connect to another medication database. A further app called Pillboxer allows users to search through a different database of medications.
In order to identify a pill, the following references use various coding schemes to mark the pill. When properly read, the code can be used to directly access the corresponding record in the database. U.S. Pat. No. 5,845,264 places a bar code on each pill. A scanner connected to a computer reads the bar code and then accesses a record from the database stored on the computer's hard drive. U.S. Pat. No. 6,543,692 places a common visual symbol on each pill in conjunction with a matrix type bar code. The common visual symbol can communicate to an EMT the category of the pharmaceutical. A code reading device can determine the type of pharmaceutical by reading the bar code. U.S. Pat. No. 7,059,526 uses bar codes printed on the pills to manage hospital inventory. In U.S. Patent Application Publication 2006/02226234 a bar code or a 2D data matrix bar code is printed or etched on a debossed region of the surface of the pill. In U.S. Patent Application Publication 2007/0026064 a holographic mark or watermark applied to the pill. U.S. Pat. No. 7,712,665 uses a color differentiated bar code marking on the pill. The marking is read by a proprietary scanner and may communicate over the interne to access the pharmaceutical database.
All of the above pill coding solutions have major drawbacks. The success of such a system requires all pharmaceutical companies and regulatory authorities to agree on a coding format, which will add to the cost of production. In addition, most systems require a scanner or computer thereby limiting its effectiveness as a field deployable tool. In addition, even if one of the above systems was universally implemented, it would not be effective in identifying older pills that do not have the bar code. To address these concerns, the following proposals seek to provide pharmaceutical identification by capturing pill images under controlled conditions with scanning stations.
In U.S. Patent Application Publication 2009/0080735 a method is disclosed for scanning pharmaceutical pills within a vial. The vial is placed in a scanning device having two different light sources. Under the first light source, a first spectral signature of the vial is captured. Then under the second light source, a second spectral signature is captured. The two spectral signatures are processed and compared to shapes stored in the pharmaceutical database.
In U.S. Patent Application Publication 2010/0091285 a method is disclosed for scanning pharmaceuticals pills within a vial. The vial is placed in a scanning station which illuminates the vial with a light color that is the inverse of the color of the vial. Alternatively, the vial is illuminated with electromagnetic radiation outside the visible range. The illumination wavelength is chosen to produce an image of the pill with the container being canceled out.
In U.S. Pat. No. 7,218,395 a vial of pharmaceuticals is placed on a sensor bed. A laser diode is used to excite Raman-active modes in the pharmaceutical to obtain a Raman spectral signature. That signature is compared to a database containing Raman spectral signatures of known pharmaceuticals. The system also weighs the vial and uses known weights to confirm that the vial contains the correct number of pills.
In U.S. Pat. No. 7,136,539 an imaging staging module is used to capture images of the pharmaceutical from at least two different visual perspectives. The weight of the pill is also obtained. The images and weight are compared to a database of known pills.
In U.S. Patent Application Publication 2008/0000979 a mechanical device is provided to roll a pill along various axes while an optical device records images of the pill. An infrared or near-infrared analytical tool may also be used to detect a composition of the pill. The images and composition data is then compared to a database of known pills.
These scanning stations are impractical for field use. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a more streamlined system where simple pill images can be captured and transmitted to a system where image processing can be combined with the pharmaceutical database contents to quickly and reliably identify pills.